Three Nine Wine » gabriels

San Antonio Wine Stores

three nine wine — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:35:12 +0000

Searching for the best values on wine in San Antonio, Texas? So are we.

In the spirit of helping to make that San Antonio wine shopping experience just a bit friendlier, Three Nine Wine is introducing our Guide to San Antonio Wine Stores, Shops and Merchants. The guide is a Google Maps mashup of our favorite places to shop for and find great deals on red, white & sparkling wines in San Antonio.

Screenshot from our Guide to San Antonio Wine Stores, Shops and Merchants

From superstores like Walmart, to grocery stores like HEB, to chains like Gabriel’s and Spec’s, to local wine shops like Saglimbeni’s, the Guide to San Antonio Wine Stores is where you’ll find information about who has some of the best deals on wine in SA plus ratings from Three Nine Wine and links to user generated reviews from sources like Yelp. We’ve also started experimenting with how to share tips and check-ins from location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla.

Though still in beta, we decided to open things up to the public as we build and you can now access the guide anytime via the link San Antonio Wine Stores which we recently added to our main navigation menu above.

And to give you a little glimpse into what’s coming down the road at Three Nine Wine, we’re working on taking all the information we’re creating and collecting on San Antonio wine stores, reviews and ratings (along with our wine reviews spreadsheet) and curating it into a special version of the web site optimized to help you use your smart phone or favorite mobile device to find an awesome bottle of wine at a great price in San Antonio.

image of G1 from T-Mobile Launch Event photo by Flickr user MobileBurn

Ultimately, we think it could be pretty interesting to build a layer of augmented reality services on top of all this wine data and release it as a downloadable app for Android devices, the iPhone and iPad with the hope of delivering the ultimate mobile shopping experience for tech savvy San Antonio wine consumers.

Stay tuned — and if you have any feedback or input, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for visiting Three Nine Wine.

2008 Santa Rita 120 Carmenere from Chile

three nine wine — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:21:48 +0000

“Peppery” is a word I sometimes see used to describe the taste of Carménère. For my palate, that kind of flavor in a red wine is a good thing. If you’re not so sure, then the 2008 Santa Rita 120 Carménère may be a nice choice for introducing yourself to this varietal that originated in Europe but is now produced primarily in the Central Valley of Chile — or in this case a sub region known as the Rapel Valley.

The Santa Rita 120 does indeed show some of that peppery personality, but as I was tasting it I got to thinking about a Concha y Toro Carménère I also got the chance to try recently. I found the Santa Rita to be much more subtle (though ultimately, not necessarily better) than the Concha y Toro. Still, this gentler approach of the Santa Rita 120 may be something that might appeal to someone wanting to try a Carménère but is a little concerned about all this talk about pepper.

I purchased my bottle at Gabriel’s Superstore for $6.99 but since then have seen an earlier vintage (2006) of the Santa Rita 120 Carménère priced lower online at Spec’s, another one of my favorite San Antonio wine stores.

If you want to learn more about Carménère, the Wall Street Journal article Carménère: A Great Value Facing Risks is a good place to start your journey and includes a list of best value Carménère’s to try. They selected the Terra Andina Reserva 2007 Caremenere to be their “Best of Tasting”.

If you’re interested in learning more about all kinds of wines from Chile, producers in the country have an organization called the Wines Of Chile. You can follow the Wines of Chile on Twitter and become a fan of the Wines of Chile on Facebook.

Wine Name: 2008 Santa Rita 120 Rapel Valley Carménère
Three Nine Wine Rating: ***½~ (3.5/5)

Note: I tried the Santa Rita 120 Carménère before the massive 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile and damaged some Chilean wine producers. Since then, buying wines from Chile is emerging as one way you can support the people of Chile and the Chilean wine industry.

Charamba Douro Vinho Tinto 2007 Aveleda

three nine wine — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:49:05 +0000

Prior to trying the 2007 Charamba Douro Vinho Tinto Aveleda, the only other red wine I’d tasted from Portugal was an occasional Port for dessert.

Seems I’ve been missing out on a lot of good wine.

Part of the reason for not trying more Portuguese red wines may have been that I haven’t seen many on the shelves of my favorite San Antonio wine stores. So when I was in the Gabriel’s SuperStore recently I asked if they had any red wines from Portugal that weren’t ports. They said they did.

This one.

Though their selection that day was a little disappointing (they did have some Vihno Verde “green” wine from Portugal as well), the good news is that the one non fortified Portuguese red wine Gabriel’s did have on hand is a good one.

As far as what exactly is in the Charamba Douro Vinho Tinto, the English translation of Aveleda.pt explains it this way:

Charamba is produced from the typical varieties used to the elaboration of Port Wine: Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Franca and Touriga Nacional.

Turns out this variety of grapes from the Douro region is an attractive match for my palate. And if you like red wines that are “smooth” yet have ample complexity to keep things interesting, this might be a good choice for you as well. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that the Charamba had more than enough personality to pair nicely with a home made chili recipe I made during one of the cold fronts that blew through San Antonio recently.

Gabriel’s had this wine for $6.99. At that price I thought it was a solid value and would definitely buy this wine again. While researching the Charamba Douro Vinho Tinto, I did see some wine stores outside of Texas listing it for under $5 dollars. That may be one of the best values on a red wine I’ve seen.

Wine Name: 2007 Charamba Douro Vinho Tinto Aveleda Portuguese Red Wine
Three Nine Wine Rating:****~ (4/5)

2008 Altos Las Hormigas Mendoza Malbec

three nine wine — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:17:12 +0000

Malbecs continue to gain popularity. And I’m one of those wine drinkers who’s helping make that happen as Malbec from Argentina has been steadily climbing in my rotation of types of wines that I shop for.

So as the urge arose once again to try a new Malbec, I went in search of the 2007 Altos Las Hormigas Mendoza Malbec at Gabriel’s Wine and Spirits San Antonio Superstore on Blanco after seeing the wine listed in this Wall Street Journal Tastings Column on Best Wine Values of 2009.

I couldn’t find the 2007, but I did see the 2008 and decided to try a bottle.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

In fact, I remain a little intrigued by this wine. Overall, I thought it was silky, but with enough going on in the structure to keep it interesting. That combo of characteristics fits my palate well. Yet there’s something in the nose of this Malbec from the Mendoza region that I can’t place. Even after enjoying the bottle over the course of a couple days I could never figure out what that something was.

All I know is that I liked it.

Wine: 2008 Altos Las Hormigas Mendoza Malbec
Three Nine Wine Rating: ****~ (4/5)

Wine Price: $11.99 – 5% Gabriel’s cash discount = $11.39